Results of the Archbold Frogs and Lizards from The
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RESULTS OF THE ARCHBOLD EXPEDITIONS. NO. 103. FROGS AND LIZARDS FROM THE HUON PENINSUL.A, PAPUA NEW GUINEA RICHARD G. ZWEIFEL BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY VOLUME 165: ARTICLE 5 NEW YORK: 1980 RESULTS OF THE ARCHBOLD EXPEDITIONS. NO. 103. FROGS AND LIZARDS FROM THE HUON PENINSULA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA RICHARD G. ZWEIFEL Chairman and Curator, Department of Herpetology American Museum of Natural History BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY VOLUME 165 i ARTICLE 5 NEW YORK: 1980 BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Volume 165, article 5, pages 387-434, figures 1-14, 1 table Issued September 22, 1980 Price: $3.10 a copy This article completes Volume 165. ISSN 0003-0090 Copyright © American Museum of Natural History 1980 CONTENTS Abstract .390 Introduction .390 Methods.391 Acknowledgments .391 The Geographic Setting .391 Previous Work in the Area .392 Systematic Accounts .393 Salientia.393 Bufonidae .393 Leptodactylidae .393 Hylidae .393 Ranidae .402 Microhylidae .403 Sauria .413 Gekkonidae .413 Pygopodidae.414 Agamidae.414 Scincidae.415 Varanidae,. 422 Biogeography.422 The Geologic Setting . 422 Faunal Distributional Relationships . 423 Endemism .423 Distributional Relationships within New Guinea . 423 Faunal Relationship to New Britain .428 History of the Peninsular Fauna . 429 Literature Cited .430 390 BULLETIN AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY VOL. 165 ABSTRACT The Huon Peninsula forms the eastern end of on the highest peaks, montane grassland expand- the Finisterre-Saruwaged mountainous region, ed and cooler temperatures prevailed. It is hy- nearly 300 km. long, which rises to 4000 m. above pothesized that these altered climatic conditions the sea and nearly that far above adjacent low- permitted immigration of such upland species as lands. Thirty-eight species of frogs and 52 of liz- are present and now, with changed climate, exist ards are recorded from the Peninsula, many of in disjunct populations. Climate did not change them for the first time. Endemism is slight: none sufficiently to permit immigration of high montane of the lizards and only three of the frog species species. Lowland species-especially skinks- appear to be endemic. Most of the lizards (92%) would have become established shortly after the and frogs (54% of non-endemic species) are low- land mass first appeared above the sea, and the land forms, although many of these range into more balanced lowland fauna would have been uplands as well. Populations of four species of achieved when the Ramu-Markham area became lizards and 16 of frogs evidently are disjunct from dry land. The scarcity of endemic forms suggests conspecific populations elsewhere, almost all of that the Finisterre-Saruwaged region has not been which are in mountains to the southwest of the isolated long enough or continuously enough to Peninsula, across the Ramu-Markham River Val- permit speciation of isolated populations. The ley. The disjunct species are ones with lower el- frog and lizard faunas provide no evidence of a evational limits at about 1000-1400 m., some low- former land connection between New Britain and er. Frog species restricted to high mountain the Huon Peninsula, and the scarcity of lowland forests or grasslands elsewhere in New Guinea New Guinea frog species in New Britain argues are absent from the Peninsula. against any such connection. Geological evidence indicates that the mountain One new species of microhylid frog-Cophix- mass of which the Huon Peninsula is part has alus pipilans-is described, and distributional, undergone 3000 m. of uplift since the late Plio- ecological, and systematic notes are given for cene, and that for part of its existence the area many of the species. was insular. In the Pleistocene, glaciers existed INTRODUCTION The Seventh Archbold Expedition to New sen, 1978) and one report on vegetation (Cos- Guinea, led in 1964 by Hobart M. Van Deu- tin, Hoagland, and Lendon, 1977) have been sen, established collecting stations on the published. The present report derives from Huon Peninsula ranging from sea level to a manuscript submitted to Mr. Van Deusen 3500 m. For more than six months, from in 1972, now extensively revised to meet the April to October, members of the Expedition circumstances of its independent publication collected both botanical and zoological ma- and to incorporate information gathered terials, emphasizing among the latter mam- since then. mals, amphibians, and reptiles. In the course The purposes of this report are to record of a separate trip to New Guinea, I partici- the species of frogs and lizards known to oc- pated in the Expedition for a little more than cur on the Peninsula, to provide pertinent two weeks, June 17 to July 3. It was Mr. Van notes on ecology, systematics and distribu- Deusen's plan to organize a multi-authored tion, and to examine the frog and lizard fau- report on the Expedition, to which various nas in a biogeographic context. There have specialists would contribute chapters based been no comprehensive faunal reports on on their studies of the Expedition's collec- amphibians or reptiles from major regions of tions and, in some instances, their experi- New Guinea, such as are available for birds. ence as members of the Expedition. This The principal reason for this situation is that goal was frustrated by Mr. Van Deusen's even where good collections have been made death in 1976, and only a summary compiled (as on the several Archbold Expeditions, or from partly completed manuscript (Van Deu- by Fred Parker at numerous localities), there 1980 ZWEIFEL: HUON PENINSULA FROGS AND LIZARDS 391 remain so many unresolved systematic prob- Other fieldwork pertinent to the present lems that attempts at comparative faunal study took place in 1968 (supported by Na- studies would be woefully incomplete. It will tional Geographic Society grant no. 674) and be evident that this difficulty has encum- 1969 (as, a member of the R/V "Alpha Helix" bered the present study. Expedition to New Guinea, sponsored by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, funded METHODS by the National Science Foundation). A series of species accounts, one for each Mr. Greenfield Sluder was my able field species of frog and lizard of which I have assistant in 1964. Members of the Alpha He- examined one or more specimens from the lix Expedition, notably Dr. Harold Cogger, study area, precedes the biogeographic dis- Dr. Herbert Dessauer, and Mr. Robert Sto- cussion. A few species were neither collect- rez, were co-workers in the field and con- ed by the Archbold Expedition nor examined tributed valuable specimens and much help. by me from other collections. I have not pre- Mr. John Womersley, then Chief of the Di- pared accounts of these, but all are included vision of Botany, Lae, was a never-failing in table 1 and some are treated in discus- source of logistical assistance. Data gathered sions. from specimens borrowed over many years Specimen numbers unaccompanied by for several projects from various museums museum abbreviations refer to specimens in contributed to this study. For their kindness the American Museum of Natural History. in making long-term loans, I am particularly Other museum names are abbreviated as fol- indebted to Mr. Michael Tyler, Dr. Ernest lows: BBM, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, E. Williams, and Dr. Alan Ziegler. Mr. Tyler Honolulu; BMNH, British Museum (Natural and Dr. Allen Greer provided helpful criti- History), London; MCZ, Museum of Com- cism of the manuscript. parative Zoology, Harvard University; MSNG, Museo Civico Storia Naturale, Gen- THE GEOGRAPHIC SETTING oa; SAM, South Australian Museums, Ade- The Huon Peninsula juts into the Solomon laide; YPM, Yale Peabody Museum, Yale Sea, forming the northern boundary of Huon University. Gulf and the southern boundary of Vitiaz Other abbreviations and notations used in- Strait. New Britain, across the strait, is only clude: TL (tibia length, from heel to outer 90 km. away at the closest point (fig. 1). The surface of knee); SV (length from snout to Peninsula is the eastern end of a rugged, vent); E-N (distance between anterior cor- mountainous region, the Finisterre and Sa- ner of eye and center of external naris); IN ruwaged ranges (elevations to 4100 m.) sep- (distance between centers of external nares); arated from the central ranges to the west by HW (head width, measured at level of tym- the low-lying Markham-Ramu River Valley panum); Eye (horizontal diameter of orbit, (maximum elevation, about 300 m.), and from anterior to posterior corner). The sym- from the Adelbert Mountains to the north by bol "±+" precedes one standard error of the the similarly low Gogol River drainage. The mean. limits of the study area were dictated by the area covered by the Expedition. From the ACKNOWLEDGMENTS standpoint of biogeography it would be more reasonable to study the Finisterre-Saru- My primary debt is to Mr. Hobart M. Van waged region as a whole, but in fact it makes Deusen, late Archbold Assistant Curator, for little difference to restrict the study to the his invitation to join the Seventh Archbold Huon Peninsula (defined by a north-south Expedition at its Gang Creek Camp on the line touching the western edge of Huon Huon Peninsula. My fieldwork in New Gulf), for scarcely anything is known of the Guinea in that year (1964) was supported by herpetofauna of the Finisterre Mountains, National Science Foundation grant GB-2217. west of the Huon Peninsula. 392 BULLETIN AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY VOL. 165 &3 14'0 150 KM0 200 S S Ml ° 200 > _e.,''. O,IRIANJ -6 e2Yf 6- m>P.ieI^( .9 °A; A FIG. 1. New Guinea and nearby islands. The Finisterre-Saruwaged uplift region is outlined, and the Huon Peninsula shaded. The valley of the Markham and Ramu rivers lies along the southwestern margin of the uplift zone.